The processing apparatuses of the above types include, for example, an apparatus for applying a liquid material to a desired spot on a workpiece (will be referred to simply as “work” hereunder) being moved on a conveyance line or moving the liquid material applied to such a desired spot owing to its fluidity to provide a desired state, such as an apparatus for applying a liquid resin as an underfill material or filler, a mounting apparatus for mounting an electronic part on a substrate, an apparatus for drilling a work with a drill, machining a work, cutting a work with a saw or otherwise processing a work.
More particularly, in the assembling process, for example, included in a series of semiconductor producing processes, a liquid material is discharged from a nozzle to a desired spot on a work for bonding, protection, filling, electrical continuity or the like of the work. In a typical manner, the liquid material is discharged from the nozzle to a predetermined spot on the work and then let to run down owing to its fluidity. In filling an underfill material such as a liquid material, for example, in the process of semiconductor production, the underfill material is let to flow down into a clearance between a semiconductor mounted on a substrate and the substrate, which is the “underfill” operation, and then it is hardened there for reinforcing the semiconductor. That is, in this process, the underfill material applied from a nozzle first to one side of the semiconductor mounted on the substrate flows into, and fills, the clearance between the semiconductor and substrate. Then, the work is placed in an oven or the like to heat the underfill material filled in the clearance. The underfill material is thus hardened to reinforce the semiconductor.
In another typical manner in the semiconductor producing processes, a semiconductor mounted on a substrate is entirely covered with a liquid resin for protection of the semiconductor, which is the so-called “application by sealing”. In such a coating process, the liquid resin applied from above to the semiconductor mounted on the substrate by the use of a nozzle will flow over the outer surface of the semiconductor and cover the semiconductor as a whole. Thereafter, the work is placed in an oven to heat the liquid resin similarly to the underfill material. The resin is thus hardened to seal the semiconductor as a whole.
Also in other than the semiconductor production, a resin material is applied, by pouring, to a part having a concavity to fill the concavity. In various industrial fields, a liquid material is applied from a nozzle to a desired spot on a work having a concavity and then let to run down into the concavity owing to its fluidity.
In this type of application, the liquid material should preferably be let to run down into the concavity in a work in a reduced time to attain an improved production efficiency. For example, in case a work is to be applied with a liquid resin material of which the fluidity varies depending upon the temperature, it is heated to a desired temperature for increasing the fluidity of the resin material.
A typical one of such conventional application apparatuses is schematically illustrated in FIG. 10.
As shown in FIG. 10, the application apparatus, generally indicated with a reference numeral 100, includes a applying section 102, a loading section 104 that moves a supply magazine 110 containing a plurality of works to one side of the applying section 102, takes one of the works A out of the supply magazine 110 and puts the work A onto a work conveyance line 112 of the applying section 102, and an unloading section 106 that picks up the work A having been applied in the applying section 102 from on the other side of the latter and puts it into a take-up magazine 114.
The supply magazine 110 contains the plurality of works A in such a manner that one of them can be taken out and conveyed more easily. It is constructed as shown in FIG. 9, for example. A work A to be applied is taken out of the supply magazine 110 and applied by an application head B including a liquid discharging nozzle etc. in a processing position P in the middle of the work conveyance line 112. The work A having thus been applied is taken up and housed into the take-up magazine 114.
Namely, in the liquid application apparatus 100 shown in FIG. 10, the work A taken out of the supply magazine 110 of the loading section 104 is moved to the processing position P provided nearly in the middle of the work conveyance line 112, applied in a predetermined manner, then moved in one direction on the work conveyance line 112, and taken up and housed in the take-up magazine 114 of the unloading section 106.
The work A carried on the work conveyance line 112 from the loading section 104 toward the processing position P is stopped to stay in a before-processing wait position Q before arriving at the processing position P. It will take time in case a next to-be-applied work A is to be supplied from the supply magazine 110 to the processing position P after a preceding work A having been applied in the processing position P is carried in the unloading section 106. By having the next to-be-applied work A stay in the before-processing wait position Q while the preceding work A is being applied in the processing position P as above, it is possible to carry the next work A to the processing position P in a reduced time.
The work A carried on the conveyance line 112 from the processing position P toward the unloading section 106 is stopped to stay in an after-processing wait position R for a while before arriving at the unloading section 106. Namely, in case a work A having been applied in the processing position P is to be housed directly in the take-up magazine 114 of the unloading section 106, it will take time for the work A to leave the processing position P. By having the applied work A move to the after-processing wait position R and stay there as above, it is possible to let the work A having been applied in the processing position P leave this position P in a reduced time.
Especially in case a liquid material is applied to a work and then let to flow down in a concavity in the work owing to its fluidity to have a desired state of application, the fluidity is increased by adjusting the temperature of the liquid material to reduce the working time or the temperature of the liquid material is adjusted with a higher accuracy by adjusting the temperature of a work to which the liquid material is to be applied. For example, a heater is put into touch with the work A from below in the processing position P to adjust the work temperature (main temperature adjustment). Otherwise, the heater is put into touch with the work A from below also in the before-processing wait position Q (temperature adjustment before processing), and then in the processing position P (main temperature adjustment). The manner of work temperature adjustment before processing makes it unnecessary to wait until the work A in the processing position P reaches a desired temperature, which leads to a reduction of the production time.
Also, by adjusting the work temperature with the heater being put in touch with the work A from below in the after-processing wait position R as well (temperature adjustment after processing), the work A can be carried out from the processing position P without having to wait until the applied liquid material completely spreads into a desired shape, which also leads to a reduction of the time up to start of the coating of a next work A.
In addition to the aforementioned liquid-material application apparatus, there has been proposed an apparatus for sealing a semiconductor with a resin as disclosed in the Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2003-133345. In a processing position in this semiconductor resin-sealing apparatus, there is made no application but a transfer molding in which a work is formed by pressing a mold filled with a resin to the work from either side of the latter. However, this apparatus is basically similar to the aforementioned liquid application apparatus in that a work (wiring board) is taken out of a magazine, moved on a conveyance line, formed and then housed into the magazine.
It should be noted that in the conventional processing apparatus such as the liquid application apparatus, resin-sealing apparatus or the like, it is necessary to move a work A having been applied or sealed in the processing position P from this position P to the after-processing wait position R before a next to-be-applied or -sealed work A staying in the before-processing wait position Q is moved to the processing position P for applying or sealing. Further in such an apparatus, the work having been moved to the processing position P has to be positioned and fixed against misalignment during processing. Therefore, transition from completion of processing of one work to start of processing of a next work takes time. That is, the production rate cannot be improved.
Also, since the work processed as above is finally a product and should be handled carefully against breakage, excessive reduction of the moving time will be rather a problem to reliability assurance of the final product.
Also, for a conveyance rate as high as possible, the before-processing wait position Q and after-processing wait position R should be provided on the work conveyance line in addition to the processing position P. Thus, the entire processing apparatus will be larger in size since such positions lead to requirement of a correspondingly wider space.
Further, since the loading and unloading sections have to be provided at one and other ends, respectively, of the processing apparatus, so the entire processing system including the processing apparatus is larger in size.
Moreover, in case it is necessary to adjust the temperature of works, a temperature controller or heater has to be provided in each of the before-processing wait position Q, processing position P and after-processing wait position R. Thus, the power consumption of the processing apparatus is larger, and heat will stay inside the apparatus to have adverse influence on the mechanical parts and electronic parts that drive the apparatus.
The present invention is to overcome the above-mentioned drawbacks of the related art by providing a processing apparatus and method improved in production rate, the apparatus being reducible in size.